A New York owner cries mayday for California racing – Whittier Daily News

DEL MAR — Horse owner Mike Repole brought Fierceness to the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Saturday at Del Mar and watched his colt run a creditable race, not winning but hanging on for second behind Sierra Leone after pressing a longshot’s hot pace.

Now we’ll see if Repole’s other, grander California venture goes the same way or if, this time, a laudable effort produces the result he wants.

The leading New York-based thoroughbred owner is trying to rally national support to reinvigorate thoroughbred racing in California.

“I’m concerned about California,” said Repole, a 55-year-old beverage-industry billionaire – and that was his only understatement in a 15-minute interview last week with three writers outside the Del Mar barn where Fierceness and other Todd Pletcher-trained horses were kept before the Breeders’ Cup.

Repole likened the North American racing industry to the Titanic closing in on the iceberg, and envisioned California being the first state to jump into a lifeboat. He marveled at racing’s ability to “screw up” its 100-year head start on legal sports gambling. He blasted short-sighted leaders in other racing capitals for thinking they’d benefit from a major circuit failing.

“You’re not a national sport if you’re not in California,” Repole said. “It’s not like if California goes, ‘we get more (market) share.’ No, if California goes, you lose. You might win (more business) for another year or two, but long-term (there would be) less and less interest.”

Repole spoke as the world was seeing a flattering snapshot of California racing at the Breeders’ Cup last Friday and Saturday.

The sun shined, Del Mar gleamed, and the footing was fair and safe. (Noting the absence of injuries doesn’t minimize the death of Jayarebe, the 3-year-old French-bred who collapsed and died, apparently of a heart attack, after finishing seventh in the Turf.)

Horses based in California outran expectations. Citizen Bull won the Juvenile at 15-1 odds, Full Serrano won the Dirt Mile at 13-1, and Straight No Chaser won the Sprint at 6-1. Finishing second were Gaming at 6-1 in the Juvenile, Vodka With a Twist at 8-1 in the Juvenile Fillies, Iron Man Cal at 29-1 in the Juvenile Turf, Johannes at 4-1 in the Mile and Motorious at 12-1 in the Turf Sprint.

The big picture in California is less attractive.

Field sizes and purses are the darkest indicators. As an example, this Friday, Del Mar has 53 entrants in eight races, and maidens chase $54,000 purses; meanwhile, Churchill Downs in Kentucky has 100 in nine races and maidens run for $120,000. That’s part of a downward spiral that sees declines in public interest leading to lower revenue, leading to lower purses, leading to less attractive racing, leading to further declines in public interest, and repeat.

Racing’s problems are worse in California because of unique conditions here. California tracks can’t easily draw horses from other major racing states, because none is nearby. Competition in the sports and gaming markets has grown faster in California, which in racing’s heyday had few top-tier professional teams and no other legal gambling. Most important, race purses here aren’t subsidized by revenue from other forms of gambling, because of the power of Native American casino operators with little wish to help economic rivals.

Repole is trying to help get the spiral going back up by sending some of his horses to Santa Anita-based trainer Michael McCarthy. Seven horses from Repole Stable have run 21 races at Santa Anita and Del Mar in 2024, three of them earning wins. Accuracy, a 3-year-old daughter of Arrogate, broke her maiden at Santa Anita by 15 lengths in October, earning a Beyer speed figure of 107, the second highest by a female this year behind likely Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna’s 111 when she ran second to Fierceness in the Travers.

Repole said he intends to send more horses here, and he calls on other East Coast owners to follow his example, realizing he’s asking for short-term economic sacrifice.

“Forget ‘Oh, the purses,’” Repole said. “I’m trying to think about the future of racing, not $40,000 vs. $80,000. Kentucky did a lot of great things for racing. But if it only benefits the state of Kentucky, we’re only going to be racing in the state of Kentucky in 10 years.”

Repole also is working to convene “10 executive leaders of the sport all in one room” to try to build support for financial incentives to encourage racing and breeding in California, and to explore the need for changes in the sport that he thinks could be as transformative as baseball’s rules to speed up the game.

“What I’m trying to do is (create) a little more urgency, a call to action,” said Repole, who facetiously calls himself “Commissioner” for his outspokenness on industry issues. “I’ve made some good friends out of it, and I have some people who hate me more than ever. And I’m motivated by both. Because the goal is to try to help racing.”

Can his calls spur action?

“Those are not idle words,” said Bill Nader, president and CEO of Thoroughbred Owners of California. “He backs it up (by sending horses).